#zutara fandom event

[burst-of-iridescent]

Hi, I’m new to the zutara fandom. Why does it seem like every month is a zutara month or every week zutara week? What does it mean?

don’t worry anon, there’s only one actual zutara month and zutara week! but the fandom is so creative and cool that we’re constantly having zutara events of some kind, which is why it can seem like there’s always something going on haha.

but you know, in the immortal words of mae whitman, katara’s voice actress:

[zkmythicalcreaturesweek]

2023 ZKMC Prompts

October 22nd - October 28th

Like last year, we have two prompts per day. The first is a monster/creature prompt and the second is a vibe/style prompt. You can use just one or both!

Thank you to everyone who voted! Prompts also listed below the cut.

Day 1: Magic Mirror --- Ancient

Day 2: Vampires and/or Werewolves --- Revenge

Day 3: Hunter/Monster --- Cure

Day 4: Angels & Demons --- Constellations

Day 5: Living Statues --- Sleep

Day 6: Talking Objects --- Asian Folklore

Day 7: Soul Eaters --- Disguise

[azehearts]

Before the council meeting starts... 😚❤

My Personal/Sentimental Ramble:

Funny, it's like an unspoken tradition to only draw my main OTPs in a kiss 2-3 years after shipping them. I guess that makes the kiss special, right? 😅 I actually made this exactly a year ago while I was mostly offline. Drawing this while waiting for a nerve-wracking news. Great news did come and I'm just happy that Zutara became, in a way, a part of some particular events in my life. Yeah, crazy, I may only started shipping them so recently, and they may be just fictional characters from a fictional world, but I'm starting to get sentimental over this ship and they basically have a lot of impact on me personally. Not only that I met new friends, I gained a little bit of courage to do better at things, and they sort of helped me whenever I'm troubled at something. Hmmm, I don't wanna list all of it down, but yeah, good things did happen when I was introduced to Zuko and Katara. A fandom that inspires!!! charz langgg~ I don't know what stuff I'll be drawing in the future, like over decades or so. Am I gonna draw them so often or not? I don't know, but one thing's for sure is that they'll remain special to me. 💜

How about you guys? Do you have any sentimental moments in the Zutara fandom? :> 💜

[iela-0989]

Zutara Big Bang 2024

Broken Promises

@zkbigbang

(Image Description in Alt Text)

(Click on the Title to read the Fic, thank you🥰)

Another illustration for another project in Zutara Big Bang 2024 event that I participated🥰 I almost forgot to post this🥹

A bunch of thanks to my team members for the support and feedback🥹❤️ Couldn't have done it without you guys~ It's pretty challenging at first, since I'm not good at drawing epic scene~ But you guys guide me through it~ Thank you so much🥰🥰🥰

And to all the Mods, for organizing this meaningful & wonderful event, with your blood, sweat and tears, I can't thank you enough🥹❤️❤️ You guys are amazing!

Make sure to check out one of our legendary and talented Artists in this fandom @mayskalih , who happened to be my Artist partner for this project, for their amazing art🥰🥰🥰

[lunaathorne]

I'm very serious when I say that Zutara antis in their blazing fits of righteousness often end up perpetuating far more dangerous and disgusting ideas about colonialism, race and eugenics than the supposed "problematic" ZK fans do. You cannot pick and choose aspects of postcolonial theory when it suits your narrative of Zuko and Katara being a horrible toxic imperialist ship and discard the rest– aka counterarguments that are posited by actual poc and people from marginalized communities (including colonized cultures)– because you have already assumed you have the moral high ground. If you have to criticize ATLA or its fandom, you have to look within your own circles too instead of stirring shit up where you are not welcome (in ZK fanart, fanfic, ship events etc).

And btw making joke assumptions about race, sexuality, political beliefs and "fetishes" for clickbait over cartoon shipping wars will never not be pinnacle immaturity. Get help. See a therapist. Talk to someone. Maybe gardening or crocheting will cause less despair. Weirdos.

[dragonfoxandfound]

Kataang stan: I rejoined the fandom and I'm so sick of seeing Zutara everywhere.

The Zutara fandom has been consistently active for about 15 years making fics, fan art, comics, pins, invented shipping events, they even did a fundraiser for water access.

Maybe if kataang stans spent more time creating and less time complaining about Zutara they wouldn't have this problem.

[late-draft]

I did not like zutara but now after scrolling through your art… I think I get it now……… maybe you converted me………… do you have any!! fic recs of them I am intrigued now I must know more teehee (I hope you don’t mind me asking this!!)

Hi, glad to hear…! I suppose XD The main thing to keep in mind is that you don't have to like anything. People have preferences and that's okay. But I'm always happy when more people appreciate good narrative. Mind if I ask how come it was specifically my art that "converted" you, when there's so much very high-quality zutara fan content, especially as I'm pretty sure I haven't posted quite many things. Most importantly, when there's literal canon in the show itself!

I don't know what you personally like in fics so sadly I wouldn't know what to recommend. I'm also relatively new in this fandom and I'm sure there are people who'd be much more well-versed in what exists in terms of fics. But there's a huge variety, to the point of the varied content being tonally and character-incompatible. This is normal occurrence for a fandom as large and old as this one. There are AUs, canon-rewrites, canon-compliant fics, single-character-POV ones, whole-gang-POV ones, feelings-driven, events-driven, depressingly-tragic, happy ones…

However I'm not gonna leave the ask with nothing - I'd recommend these excellent comprehensive analyses because they look at the mechanics of characters and how the writing itself works, thus increasing appreciation for understanding even what doesn't work!

The famous video essay by SneezyPeasy: https://youtu.be/eRxtWMODfAc?si=f15fH3VgaAKCpKGA

And this essay by Araeph: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4650423

[darklinaforever]

This person is talking about this video :

For those who know this video, it's precisely a video analyzing tons of moments / events from the Atla series... And not just a girl talking about "vast misinterpretations" for two hours (for those who don't know it, I highly recommend it). There are literal scenes used to prove / support the point of view, exactly as this anti want.

But obviously, this anti will never bother to watch this video, while pretending to know what she is talking about. But, that's the whole principle when we talk about Zutara. We talk about their scenes in the series. No scenes from our imagination ! Wtf ?!

Let's be clear, if I generally post or send this video it is to prevent me from wasting my time unnecessarily sending messages to people who will not change their minds anyway. For what ? Because this video is essentially a summary of my opinion on the Zutara question with the arguments very well illustrated and supported by the scenes of the series and or its narration with the explanation of the character arcs, etc.

What I like the most is seeing people proud to affirm that they don't watch or read Zutara analyses, and then try to pretend they know what we're talking about in our analyzes dedicated to the Ship.

How everything we say is just fantasy, our imagination. That we are actually talking about events that never happened ! Or everything is misinterpretations because Zutara makes us horny. This ship is only based on thirst and the superficial pairing of the color blue and red in addition to their physical appearance ! Nothing deep ! (Thank you again for confirming that you have probably never read or watched Zutara analyses)

I don't understand why it's so hard for people to understand that canonical events aren't always good (especially for the characters) or well done in a story. We have to stop the bullshit. There are tons of examples of series with poor writing choices. Stop pretending that having a different opinion from canon is inherently wrong. (Or the show Atla is perfect)

Especially when your only arguments are to say that the opposing team's analyzes are like this or that, when in fact, you don't even look at them ! You have no credibility.

To say that we like a certain relationship because we are superficial / horny, and that if we like it is because we have understood nothing about the series, to see frankly that in fact we do not like it and that we do not like the characters, just because we don't accept certain choices of creators, is essentially admitting to not having any arguments in my opinion.

The anti Zutara piss me off with their fucking condescension.

Also... saying the Zutara fandom is dead ? Make me laugh.

Also, if you actually like Zutara for these reasons, namely the fire / water, red / blue pairing, the fact that these characters physically fit together and you find them sexy, well there is no does nothing wrong, because it's fictional. But the fact is that I've never seen Zutara fans like this ship for these things (except for the fire and water aspect, but generally in its context of Yin and Yang, therefore complementarity, which is in fact each time associated with the characters, their behaviors, relationships and arcs. So always in a deep and not superficial perspective). In fact they are never even named in the analyzes which I come across. Quite simply because generally, Zutara fans are very intelligent people with remarkable analytical skills regarding the Zutara relationship, canonically a friendship, but also clearly with a romantic connotation of very / too many times... But I won't dwell on that since the very video on this post already talks about it.

Kisses to all Zutara fans. And fuck anyone who comes and tells me, or even thinks, that I don't have a brain.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

[ecoterrorist-katara]

Twitter found your posts about Firelady Katara, and they are being really rude about it. It's super annoying, I'm sorry

Anon, I appreciate the heads up & the nice sentiment! In the future though, I’d prefer not to know about how people react to my posts unless they’re being very nice. I don’t want to engage with negativity & smoothbrain takes, but I am VERY easily tempted lmao. My background in competitive debate / academia / leftist politics means I’m extremely argumentative, but I know nothing good comes out of Internet arguments so I need help ignoring antis. 

Anyway it’s helpful for me to remember that I’m in the Zutara fandom because I love to see people inspiring each other to create things. I’ve read so many wonderful metas, feasted my eyes on incredible fan art and edits, laughed at funny posts, foamed at the mouth over epic fics, and generally have been in awe of what this fandom has produced over the years. I mean…we’ve had colouring books! An EP! Animatics where Dante Basco himself lent his voice! This fandom has been around since before I was allowed to use the family computer and it’s so cool to me that it’s still thriving. By contrast, reacting snarkily to content that other people create is like…the opposite of generative and does nothing to better a community — which is why I fundamentally don’t care for antis and don’t want them to be part of my fandom experience. Anyone can make their half-baked opinion known online, but it takes spirit and dedication to create things you like for your ship. Anyway here’s a reminder that ZK Big Bang signups are still open for one more week! I still haven’t decided which role I want to play in this event but I encourage everyone to sign up! 

[zutaramonth]

Rules (Repost/Refresher)

About -

• What: Zutara month

• When: May 2024

• Why: We love this ship

• Who: @zutarawasrobbed and @poeticmoonspirit

Rules -

1. Age requirements

This event has no age requirement.

2. Acceptable content

Art, edits, fics, gifs, amvs... whatever you want to do! all we ask is that the submissions be respectful of the characters and the participants alike!

3. Participation

Feel free to submit work, private message links to the mods, or tag Zutara month in the posts!

4. Tags

Tracked tags are as follows:

#zutaramonth, #zutaramonth2023 #zutara month, & #zutara month 2023

5. Triggers

Please respect any and all triggers others may have.If your work contains potentially upsetting content, place content warnings in the description and follow this format for tagging: #trigger: [topic].

6. NSFW

NSFW content is allowed. So long as your work is tagged correctly, it will be reblogged for the event. However, if you intend to contribute NSFW art, it must be shared via a link to a platform that allows NSFW art to be posted.

7. Non-negotiables

This fandom holds nothing but the utmost respect for both Zuko and Katara, and staying true to them, no content that irrationally bashes another character or ship will be permitted.

If your work violates any of these rules, it will not be reblogged.

[sokkastyles]

I ship Zutara romantically and enjoy imagining their relationship within ATLA's story. I also like exploring various possibilities for what their relationship would look like as well (romantic, platonic, queerplatonic, etc.). However, I've noticed that Katara's relationships are often moralized in the fandom (except for her relationship with Haru) unlike other characters in the Gaang. For instance, Katara's feelings for Jet are portrayed as something she should be ashamed of, even though her own thoughts about the relationship that we get to see in Lake Laogai are more complicated than she lets on. Her thoughts on romance or relationships are also rarely explored seriously (except in the Fortuneteller, where I thought she was very cute, but her thoughts there are played off as a joke and not something to be taken seriously). In contrast, Toph, Sokka, Zuko, and Aang all have their romantic or even other personal connections with other people depicted without similar judgment.

This bothers me, because I think Katara deserves a deeply personal connection with someone that isn't moralized or disregarded for weird reasons. I like the idea of her having this connection with Zuko, as they bonded in Crossroads of Destiny and TSR over their mothers' loss due to the Fire Nation and how that has affected them. I like the idea of Katara and Zuko being closer to each other after the events of TSR and both of them consciously leaning more into that connection and wanting to spend more time with each other. I like the idea of them having a relationship that isn't really romantic but is definitely more than platonic, and ultimately something that is uniquely theirs. What are your thoughts about this?

Toph is definitely mocked for her romantic feelings towards Sokka, and the show does implicitly condemn Katara for getting close to Haru. It's commonly accepted that Haru's porn stache was meant to kill any possibility of romance between the two, and Toph also jokes about the possibility of Katara having feelings for him.

I get what you are saying, and I do enjoy platonic zutara, but I also enjoy them as a romantic couple, and I don't like the idea that their relationship would somehow lose what makes it special or unique if it involved romance or sex. I think that idea itself comes from the stigma around female sexuality. I'm not saying that is what you are doing, but I do feel very strongly that Katara is not in any way diminished by the number of boys that she may or may not have romantic feelings for.

[burst-of-iridescent]

Hi! Just a quick message to say that I love your analysis on Katara and Zuko and their dynamics with each other. I personally love how you place the emphasis on them having their journey towards growth together, but an individual one as well. I've only started watching AtlA two years ago, but reading your remarks during my second rewatch of the show made me appreciate the nuances of their relationship and arc more <3 I was just wondering, because you've made some good Zutara fic recs in the past, which Zutara long fic would you absolutely recommend? Thank you so much!

aww, thank you so much! i haven't read long zutara fics in quite some time actually but off the top of my head here are my favs:

the color of the stars by bluenebulae: yes i know i've recommended this fic a hundred times already but i will continue to do so bc it's SO GOOD. this is a book 3 canon divergence where zutara get captured together on DoBS and need to find their way back to the gaang together and it is just everything.

tempest in a teacup by akaVertigo: if you've been around in zutara fandom for a while, you probably already know this fic but i couldn't not include it. this is an au where katara ends up in the fire nation as a child after her mother's death and she and zuko grow up together. fire nation katara AUs do make me a little suspicious because they can easily be done wrong, but this one does it right and the writing is absolutely stunning so trust me when i say you won't be let down.

zuko's tiny dilemma by boogum: book 1 au where zuko is accidentally turned into a 6 year old (with his 16 year old consciousness) and the gaang ends up having to take care of him. i know that sounds like a weird set-up for romantic zutara but i promise nothing gross happens. it's actually a very funny, sweet and wholesome fic so i strongly encourage that you give it a chance!

the worst prisoner by emletishfish: book 1 au where sokka accidentally kidnaps zuko during the events of the blue spirit, and shenanigans and zutara ensue. this is the funniest zutara fic i have ever read AND there are two more installments in the series so you will be good to go for a long time.

(i couldn't find this fic in my bookmarks at first because my browser logged me out of ao3 and i nearly had a breakdown thinking it was gone forever and texted my friends in full panic mode, so that should tell you how much i adore it.)

once around the sun by eleventy7: i would be deeply remiss in offering fic recommendations if i didn't mention one of the most goated zutara fics of all time. i'll warn you now that though this fic has a happy ending, you should absolutely check the tags or you will be stabbed in the heart halfway through just like i was. the pain is definitely worth it, though.

i hope you enjoy reading these! <3

[zkmythicalcreaturesweek]

ZKMC 2022 Starts Today!

Be sure to follow our tags #zkmc #zkmc2022 & #zutaramythicalcreaturesweek to see the influx of new content!

The mods will be reblogging as soon as we can, but if we miss something, please feel free to DM us.

For fics, don’t forget to add them to our Ao3 collection, ZutaraMythicalCreaturesWeek2022!

[katara-stan-club]

Hi!

Which Zutara fics do you recommend? I'm currently back in the mood for ATLA and try to find some Zutara centered fanfics to read.

Thanks in advance & stay safe!

oooooo thanks for the ask! now to try and remember all the fics I really love, it's honestly been a minute since I read zutara consistently (bad batch s2 and 3 really derailed my ability to pay attention to other fandoms lol) most of these are Teen/Gen, but I labeled the Mature ones with M!

one of my top rec's is The Summit (M) by AJLenoire, it was one of the first zutara fics I started reading when I got into the zutara fandom, and it's one of my favorites to reread. Ambassador Katara my beloved <3

such selfish prayers by andromeda3116 and it's follow up and love, the shoreline, where you and i meet are also absolutely beautifully written and SSP absolutely deserves being the top kudos-ed zutara fic on AO3. It's not zutara heavy, it's more of an exploration of Katara with a little bit the beginnings of zutara, but I would consider it required reading.

another Katara heavy fic is Katara Alone by cablesscutie, and looking it up I just saw they uploaded Zuko's side of events in that fic and I haven't read it yet, so I know what I'm doing after this! also they have a blacksmith!Zuko au that is just phenomenal called I Cannot Say It All In Lines

a couple of certified classics that are zutara required readings are The Color of the Stars by bluenebulae and Once Around the Sun by eleventy7 and they are both deserving of being fandom staples.

Moonlight and Sunshadow (M) by GrapefruitTwostep is an "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" retelling and it's a delightful read!

Peace & Love by catie_writes_things is an arranged marriage fic if you like that (which I certainly do!)

Brightest in the Dark by SooperSara is a canon divergent fic from the crystal catacombs under Ba Sing Se, and it's soooooo good (and honestly any other fic by that author is worth the read, just constant bangers)

Customs by mielemare altered my brain chemistry, it's such a good take on the fire nation hair customs

There's probably a million fics I could have put here that I have forgotten about, but I think this is a pretty good starting point! if anyone else has other must-read rec's feel free to add them!

[allgremlinart]

haiiiiii friend can you explain jianzhu to me I keep seeing you post about them and I’m nosy and wanna know (<- stopped watching atla bc I realized zutara was never gonna be canon)

also jetko. can you explain jetko too (I’m thinking they’re more on the ghostbat spectrum where it’s like. intense friendship that left both emotionally scarred for the rest of their lives)

TEEHEE HEEHE HEE <- me when I get the opportunity to explain/infodump cross-fandom stuff to mutuals

ok so Jianzhu... ahhh Jianzhu... ((SPOILERS for anyone reading the Kyoshi novels))

This is Jianzhu and also like... probably one of maybe 4 canon images/art there is of him... he's not from the original cartoon he's from the Avatar Kyoshi spin-off novels that take place abt 400 yrs before the events of the show (idk how much you know abt atla lore from osmosis so this might get a little tedious? I'm just gonna explain as succinctly as possible.)

To be brief, he's a cunty old man. But unlike when I call, say, Minhkhoa a cunty old man it's not really loving ... its more like... I love to hate him. He's a REALLY good villain.

He's a politician. He made 500 people dig their own graves and then buried them alive. He beheaded his friend of like 20+ years. He drugs and kidnaps teenagers. etc. It's great.

His whole character arc is like... He's in control. You start off the book and he is very clearly in control, and he knows what he's doing, and he even sounds halfway reasonable sometimes but over the course of the novel he gets more and more desperate to grab hold of a situation that spirals wildly away from him and you get to watch it happen. His justifications for his actions get crazier, he gets sloppier and sloppier with his murders....

OH also you know how sometimes people think Bruce is some callous asshole who was only using his adoptive son who worshipped him as a weapon, and when he died he quickly sought to replace him without remorse ? Yeah he's like that but. Like actually this time. His dead adoptive son also then comes back after eating an eyeball in the spirit world (idk) and kills him by pressing a pebble through his sternum so. More successful than Jason at patricide I'd say. Look there's a lot I didn't cover, here's his wiki.

ok Jetko... ah... the ancient yaoi..

Important required reading before I explain this ship is this post. What you have to understand about Zuko is that for basically like... 40 episodes the only person he shares significant screen time with is his uncle so when him and Jet met in s2 and had a decent 3 episodes worth of interactions ... it was enough, lets just say that.

The basic Jetko timeline is they meet on a ferry while Zuko and his Uncle are disguised as refugees and they steal food together -> Jet tries to get Zuko (who he only ever knows as "Li") to join his emo band gang which Zuko refuses -> Jet sees Uncle Warcrimes heating his tea and correctly deduces that they are firebenders (ie not who they say they are; the enemy) -> Zuko and his Uncle work in a tea shop while Jet stalks them and steals things from their house and watches them from behind clotheslines (yeah) -> Jet confronts them in the teashop, sword fight, Jet gets arrested and brainwashed by the secret police (yeah) -> Jet dies under a lake which Zuko only finds out about a season later.

So they never had the 4 years of intense homoerotic cohabitation that ghostbat had,.. their chemistry and potential are pretty much instigated by a few of Jet's weird intense lines, such as "As soon as I saw your scar I knew exactly who you were - you're an outcast, like me." And the crux of the ship is like.. Jet both does and doesn't know who Zuko is.

He knows he is also angry and restless, like himself - he knows he is running from his past, like himself - and he knows he is going to Ba Sing Se to create a new identity. These things are all true, for both of them; what Jet doesn't know is that Zuko is from the imperialist nation that brutally murdered his parents and invaded his home and he incorrectly assumes that the anger he recognizes in Zuko stems from the same need to enact violence on those who have taken everything from him.

So I guess the "thought you were exactly like me but then I found out you're not which enrages and humiliates me so know I'm going to beat the shit out of you" thing from BTK no. 6 is something they share with ghostbat but.. Jet's anger is probably a little more justified than Minhkhoa's lol...

In conclusion it's your basic "doomed relationship/they work great together but that doesn't fix anything" ship premise. It used to be more popular back in the day... pretty sure I owe my life to maybe 3 different Taiwanese/Chinese doujin artists from 2009... yeah that's the gist of it.

[atla-confessions]

Block Notice

The Zutara fandom currently has a creative event going on creating an influx of art and fic posts. This can pose a problem to some fans especially those that are not fans of zk.

If this is the case for you and the mere sight of zk content makes you unreasonably enraged, makes you cry, triggers you to write unhinged hate posts, harass authors and artists alike or simply incites uncontrollable toddler temper tantrums, it is encouraged that you to block the following tags now.

zkbb2024 and zkbigbang2024

Stay safe 😛

Thank you very much, you are a good person. Really. Hope you'll have a lot of pleasure during the event!

X